This website is for Private Investors* only

*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:

Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;

Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;

Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;

Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;

Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;

Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.

Market Report

Companies

Currencies

Britain’s retailers battled through “tough” trading conditions in January as consumers preserved their cash for essential food shopping and shunned big ticket purchases. Non-food sales declined by 1.2% in the three months to the end of January with furniture sellers, shoe shops and high street clothing retailers recording their worst performance since 2009, according to British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG data. – Guardian

The head of Britain’s financial watchdog has warned both sides in the Brexit talks that they will be risking mutually damaging instability unless they agree to a transition deal smoothing the UK’s departure within the next two months. Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said City regulators needed time to sort out issues including the validity of derivatives contracts, clearing financial trades and cross-border flows of data. – Guardian

Carillion’s directors have been accused of ignoring concerns about the health of its pension scheme for at least five years in evidence published ahead of their appearance at a parliamentary select committee tomorrow. A paper prepared for the company’s pension trustee board in 2012 by its advisors Gazelle Corporate Finance suggested that Carillion was more focussed on “repaying acquisition debt, a progressive dividend policy and equity payments into PPP projects” than paying into its pension scheme. – Telegraph

Britain’s largest car builder Jaguar Land Rover has blamed the cost of R&D and new model launches on a 25pc fall in pre-tax profits. Posting third-quarter numbers, the Coventry-based business said despite global vehicle sales rising 3.5pc to 154,447 during the three months to the end of December, pre-tax profits dropped from £255m last time round to £192m. JLR said revenues rose by 4.3pc during the quarter to £6.3bn. - Telegraph

Britain has been told to follow the examples of France and the Netherlands and end the comedy of errors that is the government’s strategy on infrastructure investment. The Institute for Government think tank says that infrastructure planning in the UK can be summed up by the Great Western rail fiasco, in which electric trains are running on unelectrified track, and the southeast airport expansion, which, after years of handwringing, has left no one any the wiser as to whether a new runway will be built at Heathrow or Gatwick, or at all. – The Times

The number of homes sold in the most expensive postcodes of London fell by 3.6 per cent last year compared with 2016, reflecting a wider slowdown across much of the UK. Transactions fell in the “prime” areas of the capital’s housing market, particularly for homes priced below £2 million, according to Lonres, a property data provider. – The Times